


My Kingdom For An Eggplant

by sabaceanbabe



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M, everlark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 06:04:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5194949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabaceanbabe/pseuds/sabaceanbabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Bonnie (safeinpeetasarms on Tumblr) who wanted Everlark, a pregnant Katniss, and eggplant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Kingdom For An Eggplant

“Peeta? Do we have any eggplant?”

The words insinuate themselves into his dream. The voice belongs to Katniss, but the image belongs to a faceless Peacekeeper, watching him impassively from the other side of a set of heavy metal bars.

“How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t know!”

His own shout wakes him. He sits bolt upright in their bed, staring into the darkness at a crack of moonlight between the curtains. Slowly, his heart begins to slow to a more normal rate and the adrenalin rush backs down a couple of steps. He feels the bed shift with his wife’s weight and she sets the palm of her hand between his bare shoulder blades.

“I only asked you the one time,” she says. There’s both amusement and concern in her smoky voice. He leans forward, pushing his head into his hands.

“Sorry, Katniss. It was kind of a weird dream.” He looks over his shoulder at her silhouette. “I could have sworn a Peacekeeper interrogated me about eggplant.”

“No, that was me. Do we have any?” She laid her cheek against his back in place of her hand.

“You really did ask about eggplant?”

He feels it when she shrugs, just before she slips her arms around his waist, scootching in as close as she can, but it’s still an awkward position, given how large the baby is getting. According to Hazelle Hawthorne, she’s got less than a month to go before giving birth to their first child. The mere thought of it brings a smile to Peeta’s face. He’d never thought anything like this would ever happen.

“I have a taste for it.” She kisses the middle of his spine, the light touch causing him to shiver and then her arms to tighten around him. He feels the baby kick at the small of his back even as Katniss gasps.

“Ha. Maybe it’s the little one who has a taste for it,” he says, leaning back into his wife’s embrace.

“Now how could that be? She’s never had it.”

“How can you be so sure he’s a she?” Peeta counters, still grinning from ear to ear. One of which Katniss sinks sharp teeth into. “Hey!”

She laughs. “Turn around, Baker Boy, so we can discuss it in more detail.”

Peeta does as he’s told, although there isn’t much actual discussion involved, or even words. Not after he pushes her down into the mattress, careful not to crush the baby.

***

Leaning back against the wall, Peeta keeps an eye out for Katniss. She’d gone with Posy Hawthorne to gather berries. He doesn’t expect her back for at least a couple of hours, but her moods - and thus her actions - have been mercurial lately. He doesn’t want to take any chances that she’ll ruin the surprise before it ever has a chance to happen. This is the third day in a row he’s been making phone calls, tracking down leads, starting in what was once District 13, which was the first place he remembers ever having eggplant.

A woman answers the other end of the phone line and Peeta says a quick and silent thank you to President Paylor for all of the public works and improvements she mandated in the early days of her presidency that have carried forward to this day. The wealthier areas and the places where the war remained more distant had recovered more quickly, but places like District 11 had taken a bit longer.

“Hi, Mrs. Milton. It’s Peeta Mellark.” He fidgets, bouncing his prosthetic leg off his good knee, impatient to get through the polite chitchat to the real reason for his call. But Rue’s mother wants to hear all about Katniss and how they’ve been since he last called her and he doesn’t have the heart to just cut her off.

“I’m so happy you called, Peeta, but I know you must have some reason other than to just catch up.”

Holding back a sigh of relief, he says, “Yeah, actually, I’m trying to get hold of some eggplant. Katniss has been having cravings.”

She laughs, a merry sound, but then says with regret, “I’m so sorry, Peeta. It’s out of season. I really don’t know where you might find some.”

Disappointment floods through him. His leg stops bouncing. “That’s okay, Mrs. Milton.”

“Now, Peeta, you know I’ve told you to call me Rosemary.”

“Rosemary. Do you have any suggestions at all?”

“Well…” She draws the word out until it could practically be a sentence of its own. “If you think she’d be okay with it not being fresh…”

“I really don’t think she cares.” Or would even notice, for that matter. It’s been years since she had eggplant and even then, if it was just the slop 13 had fed them, which admittedly might not have been as bad as it was in Peeta’s memories, he should be able to make something decent with dried or canned. He hears Rosemary shuffling papers on the other end of the line.

“Here it is. Do you have something to write with, Peeta dear?” She rattles off a phone number, which he dutifully writes down, and says, “My husband sold a case of canned eggplant a couple of years back now to a man in the Capitol. Now mind, he might have eaten it all by now, but if not, he might be willing to part with a can or two for that sweet wife of yours.”

Grinning at the thought of someone describing Katniss as sweet, he thanks her and makes yet another phone call.

***

“Peeta, whatever that is, it smells delicious!” Katniss’ stomach growls its agreement and they both laugh as he leads her to the kitchen table.

Taking his hands from over her eyes, Peeta says, “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

He watches Katniss as she focuses on the spread laid out before her on their table. He’s pretty sure it rivals anything they saw in the Capitol during their victory tour, at least in quality if not in quantity. Her beautiful gray eyes go wide at the sight, shining almost silver under the electric lights. Her hands go unconsciously to her swollen belly as a smile spreads slowly across her patchwork face.

“You got me eggplant. Real?” There’s wonder in her voice, and the shining look in her eyes makes butterflies take flight in his stomach. It makes all the haggling and bargaining and the exorbitant price he’d finally paid for two cans of purple and gray vegetable to travel across the country worth it.

“Real.”


End file.
